This visitor was great as she changed plenty of pooey nappies, and bathed and fed baby girl, and jumped on the trampoline with the boy.  Plus, she let me sleep in until midday one day, which was just what I needed.

We miss you, Chrissy xxx

The weather did not behave at all though.  We had had our fingers crossed all day, but about 15 minutes before guests were to arrive, the heavens opened up and it poured.  And poured.  And poured.  Seriously, I have never seen so much rain in January.  There was thunder and lightening, and flash floods.  I was so sad I admit I nearly cried : (

Nevertheless the party went ahead, but my pretty backyard was ruined, the ground underneath the gazebo turned to mush so we couldn’t even use it, and all the chairs and seating we had arranged were abandoned in the rain and everyone had to squash inside and under the pergola standing up.

Luckily, the heavy rain subsided quite quickly, and we only had drizzle for most of the night.  In any case it didn’t seem to slow the kids down one little bit!

We hired a wood oven pizza guy, and this pizza was amazing.  Soooooo good.

You can see in the background of this photo the much loved slushie machine!  This baby got a workout- the kids loved their tropical slushies, and we enjoyed the adult versions too!

This cake tasted as good as it looked- it was DELICIOUS.

It was a great night and a big THANKYOU to everyone who came to help us celebrate!

The children’s nudie slip & slide.  Don’t worry- no photos now but they will be dragged out for 21st bdays!  We went through an entire bottle of detergent, and this provided literally hours of entertainment for the kids and adults alike (from the sidelines!).

Russ was very excited to bring the Jenga out, and I really can’t remember the last time I played this game, but it was very fun (maybe not for Jo?) and we made it to 32 levels- woo hoo.

The grand finale was when a sparkler caught fire to Amelie’s dress (luckily she wasn’t wearing it at the time).

I am excited about 2012.  Bring it on!

Luckily Nanna and Pop took Ash to get a Christmas photo, as my attempt for one was a FAIL.  Little Miss was fast asleep- nothing could awake her!  Very unusual for her indeed…Here she is kind of flopped on Mrs Claus.

Christmas morning was lovely.  I think we may be one of the only households that had to wake their child up because we were too excited and couldn’t wait any longer!  Camille was up at 6am but Ash was still sound asleep at 7am so I went into his room and made a bit of noise.  He had actually forgotten it was Christmas, but once he saw the tree with his Santa sack underneath it, he was into full present-opening mode!

We had Christmas lunch at ours this year, and although our house still has a fair bit of work to be done on it, the most important thing was completed the day before- a door on the toilet!!!  Everyone was most impressed to discover this!  We set up the Christmas table half inside, half outside and it worked quite well.

One of the Townsin family traditions is a water fight on Christmas Day.  This year was no exception although I made sure to hold onto Camille and pleaded for mercy, which was granted (thankfully!).

My little chicken had a big day, but as long as she is in her mama’s arms she is happy…

Bo brought her two doggies, Ella and Charlie, who were very well behaved…apart from a little land mine left in the backyard that Aunty Pip’s foot somehow found.

All in all, it was a fantastic day, and a great end to a very big year for us.  We are so blessed and lucky and every day I am grateful for all that we have in our life. Hope your Christmas was just as wonderful as ours xxx

Decorating the tree requires huge efforts of concentration for a 3.5 year old.

We have also started making our Christmas wrapping paper.

And, although I’m not super excited about Christmas, there is something that I am very very very excited about…Pauly P is nearly finished uni.  For good!!!!  Yee ha.  Woo hoo!  Celebrations galore!!!  Our loungeroom was recently turned into a photo studio to capture his final project.  Sorry I can’t show any photos of it, just a glimpse (because who knows- maybe someone will want to buy it and we will become millionaires…bwahhahaha).

I am extremely proud of Pauly P.  He has worked so hard at uni, at work and on our home for the past five years I couldn’t be happier for him (and me!) that he has finally accomplished his dream of attaining an Industrial Design degree.

Hopefully now he has finished we will have plenty more family days, like the one we had today…pity it’s near impossible to get nice photos of both kids at the same time.

Yesterday I was in a massive grump so decided that communing with nature might be a way to beat my foul mood.  I took both kids on a bushwalk that was fantastic, mainly due to my die hard adventurer who has no fear and wants to scale mountains high and discover all manners of amazing things…thankfully he brought his trusty torch which was just perfect for exploring a cave.

Everytime I feel like it’s all getting too much, and being a parent provides plenty of those moments, I need to remind myself of the privilege it is to be a mother to two happy and healthy little individuals.  These little people continue to surprise and delight me.

This year for the first time we celebrated Halloween.  Having kids is so much fun- we get to do so many really cool things, like traipsing the neighbourhood collecting candy- what could be more fun????  Perhaps eating the lollies I suppose!

Of course I could not do a post without showcasing some of Ashie’s creativeness.  Thankfully he has finally taken a liking to good old plain drawing- this is Ash and a ghost.

But sticking stuff together is also still a lot of fun!

My little one continues to be a real joy to have around- here she is helping to make white choc and butterscotch biccies.

And something that is just so great about having more than one child is seeing how much they love each other…

This photo simply makes my heart sing.

And this little man, well as usual, he is busy creating things.

Whilst he was having a sleepover at Nanna & Pop’s the other night, I took the liberty of cleansing the house of some of his creations…

This is but a mere few days worth of his efforts.  The kid is INSANE for craft.  Or rather, I am going INSANE from his obsession with craft!  Don’t worry, I am not a totally heartless mummy- I took photos of everything before tossing them all in the bin and wheeling it out to the curb pronto!

Bet you can’t guess what this is…

…a fire truck

Painting dough shapes…(poor little Camille in the background!)

Trying to convince myself that PAINTING IS FUN

Water colour pencils provide a “slightly” less stressful experience…

More paint on him than on the paper…

So that’s pretty much it for now!  Camille is good at being cute and happy.  And Ash is good at making a mess whilst crafting it up.  I love my kiddies : )

Taken a while ago- I think Tanya has been here a few times since then even- but I think it is just too cute.

Those of you who know the delightful Tanya (aka Rara), will know that she has become a roller derby girl.  This is her gift, on it’s way to her doorstep…